ABSTRACT
Thanks to several previous efforts, school peer-to-peer bullying is nowadays considered a major issue for educational dynamics, research, and policy. Specifically in the field of research, bullying assessment tools have been gaining ground in recent years. Among them, the School Bullying Questionnaire (CIE-A) stands out. This is a teenager-targeted scale assessing bullying dynamics from a three-factor approach (i.e., victimization, symptomatology, and intimidation). However, to date, no previous study using similar tools has followed a gender perspective, and this shortcoming may hinder the effectiveness of policies and actions to face school bullying. The core aim of this study was to examine the effect of gender on teenagers' bullying-related factors and intimidation outcomes. This cross-sectional study analyzed the data provided by a gender-weighted sample of 770 Spanish teenagers with a mean age of M = 14.25 (SD = 1.53) years. They responded to a questionnaire that included the CIE-A together with other variables theoretically related to bullying dynamics, such as risk perception, sensation seeking, life satisfaction, and family conflict. Apart from typical inter-group comparisons, data were analyzed through a multi-group structural equation modeling (MGSEM) approach. Regarding bullying experiences, male teenagers have shown greater involvement in both victimization (passive bullying) and intimidation (active harassment) behaviors. On the other hand, females self-reported greater symptomatology in passive bullying scenarios, despite being less frequently involved in them. Further, the MGSEM showed good fit values (RMSEA <.08; all incremental coefficients >0.90) and theoretical plausibility, also depicting a set of structural mechanisms differentially explaining active peer-to-peer intimidation behaviors across genders. For instance, while risk perception is a significant predictor of intimidation only among females, sensation seeking plays a predictive role among male teenagers, but not for their female counterparts. The results of this study suggest that teenagers' engagement in active bullying may be substantially different when approached from a gender perspective, finding key divergences in the variables that predict bullying-related behavioral outcomes. The outcomes of this research highlight the need to take into account gender differences, as well as extracurricular issues that influence intimidation dynamics, in potential bullying-related interventions.
ABSTRACT
Besides its several threats to health, welfare, social and academic development and performance of kids and teenagers, school bullying remains highlighted as one of the most relevant related challenges for educational, behavioral and legal sciences worldwide. Moreover, the lack of research on the field and the crucial but unattended need to count on psychometrically suitable and valid tools to detect school bullying make difficult understanding its contexts, dynamics and possible solutions. Objective The aim of this study was to thoroughly present in detail the psychometric properties and validity issues of the School Bullying Questionnaire (CIE-A) among secondary students. Methods A regionwide sample of 810 (47.2% girls) secondary students attending to 21 schools across the Valencian Community (Spain), aged M = 14.40 (SD = 1.61) years, responded to a paper-based questionnaire containing the 36-item version of the CIE-A and various scales related to psychosocial health and wellbeing, used as criterion variables. Results The outcomes of this study suggest that the CIE-A has a clear factor structure, an optimal set of item loadings and goodness-of-fit indexes. Further, that CIE-A has shown good internal consistency and reliability indexes, coherent associations with other mental health and academic performance variables, and the possibility to assess gender differences on bullying-related factors among secondary students. Conclusion The CIE-A may represent a suitable tool for assessing bullying in a three-factorial approach (i.e., victimization, symptomatology, and intimidation), offering optimal psychometric properties, validity and reliability insights, and the potentiality of being applied in the school environment. Actions aimed at improving the school coexistence and the well-being of secondary students, targeting potential bullied/bully profiles or seeking to assess demographic and psychosocial correlates of bullying among teenagers, might get benefited from this questionnaire.
